200	HENRY   GEORGE
times when his spirits were low. Years earlier he had written
Dr. Taylor, "It does not surprise me that you feel that despond-
ing mood sometimes, for I so often feel it myself. And I presume
that is the case with every man who really amounts to anything.
What we do is so little as compared with what we feel we could
do, and ought to have done."9
In Progress and Poverty he had written: "The bitterest
thought—and it sometimes comes to the best and the bravest-is
that of the hopelessness of the effort, the futility of the sacrifice.
To how few of those who sow the seed is it given to see it grow,
or even the certainty to know that it will grow."10
Frank Stephens recalled having gone to visit George one
afternoon before a meeting. The host did not rise to greet his
guest, as was his custom, but remained stretched out on his
couch, wearing an expression that moved Stephens to ask,
"Stage fright?"
"No/* replied George slowly, "worse than that! I was wonder-
ing if it was all worth while!"lx
Perhaps at that moment he was conscious of what Tom John-
son later observed, "Men like Henry George in all ages have had
to pay so big a price for just the chance to serve."12
The unevenness of George's public speaking has been men-
tioned before. He was not uniformly eloquent. His speeches
were inspirational and depended much upon the temper and
type of his audience. He was always grieved if he felt his effort
had fallen below par. One day, after he had delivered what he
considered a poor address, he said to Charles Frederick Adams,
who was a member of the Single Tax League of Washington,
D.C., "Come to lunch, Charley. I am so ashamed of that lecture
as an artistic performance that I want to spend the money I got
for it"13
Usually amiable and patient under heckling, he could on
other occasions be terse and sharp. When, for instance, someone
wrote him "for the' purpose of deciding a wager" and asked,
"Can a man be a Single Taxer and not believe in free trade?" he
replied, "I do not know that I am called upon to decide wagers.
I have not hid my own opinion."
Though hardly a wit, he had a robust sense of humor which
led him into retorts that were so apropos as to be extremely
amusing. After most of his speeches he invited questions. Once,
at a meeting in Texas, he was asked, "Suppose for argument's
sake, Mr. George, that you owned all the land and I owned all